The front

I have some theater background, mostly from college and mba days. And then I saw Phantom of the Opera 2 nights ago (highly recommended!) which is like a "theatre in theatre" since the content of the musical is about an opera house. Finally, today I went to one of the largest malls in this city - neon everywhere, lots of happy people with families/prams and impeccably clean stores & salesmen.

So what suddenly hit me as I walked around the mall today? The Front.

Malls are like this giant theater happening on mega scale. Just behind the "staff only" sign of the connecting door lies the equivalent of stage props, disused lights, green room smells and old buckets of paint. One doesn't want to know where the food has come from as long as it's presented in neon. One doesn't seek to ask who made that T-shirt and under what working conditions (non airconditioned is a given). One doesn't ask what domestic stresses the salesman is going through under that smiling face, all for a monthly salary of $2000. One doesn't know about the double shift of the bathroom cleaning bangladeshi worker and the fact that his mom is ill back in Chittagong but he's too poor to go & meet her.

The shoppers are like masquerade participants (from the phantom of the opera). Each with a smiling face, walking by exchanging pleasantries with others in the ballroom (i.e. atrium & aisles). In pairs or familiar groups, walking past the other actors in the production.

But just like we seek to "forget" in the hustle of a large mall & walk like robots guided by subliminal signals of neon, so too must the actors. Deaden out last night's argument with wife via a pleasant, non-meaningful exchange about a toaster's features with a potential customer. Besides, it pays the bills. The dark side of the moon is best not seen.

The show must go on. Encore monsieur!

Pathfinder the movie

Avoid

the first moment

Was observing 2 guys on the road the other day while parked at a red light. One was about 40, clearly full of life's stresses and walking purposefully early morning towards employment in singapore. The other was about 20, walking along with the other guy but was nearly bumping into electricity poles with his mouth open - staring at the city around him.

Got me thinking about the 'first moment' when people from low income countries experience life in a developed country. We all remember that first moment when we first saw the clean streets, the hip cars, the fashionable people, electronics galore, the short skirts, the taller/whiter race of people and the amazingly tall buildings.

Some had the first moment earlier in life and we were extremely jealous of those "uncles & aunties" who used to come loaded with toblerones bought off discount grocery stores selling them on sale in foreign lands (little did we know the source!). Whenever we would go through the first moment on our own, we were full of conversation and came closer to family - more words were exchanged with "did you see that?!!!!" than probably in the previous few months of "beta, karela kha lo" or something similar.

Since it had been a long time for me, was very refreshing to see the 20 something fellow with his mouth open, walking the singapore cement pavements (no fallen leaves ofcourse! this is foren land and would not want to disappoint the laddie and his stories for the folks back home).

what was your first moment?

In Pursuit of Happyness

Powerful film and a critic rightly said "will smith delivers the performance of a lifetime" - leaves MIB far, far, far behind! I actually loved the screenplay (wonder if the book by the real chris gardener is as interesting). The little touches of the medical diagnostic device getting stolen & then retrieved - hilarious! Powerful acting by the kid also (think he's will smith's actual kid going by his name in the credits - even longer than & similar to Jada pinkett smith, his wife's name!). Direction also good - lots of cuts but never felt the transitions!